The Good Vs The Wicked
Lessons From The Psalms • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
We began looking at a new series of lesson here on Sunday nights wherein we will be studying through and gaining some of the “Lessons From The Psalms.”
Last week was “third Sunday” so two weeks ago we learned that Hebrew poetry is based in “though rhythm” not “word rhythm.”
We also spent some time examining how the psalms come in several different styles.
Psalm 1, our text for today, is a “didactic style psalm” that in essences tells a story.
The story being told is “what a truly happy man” looks like.
With this in mind let’s examine our lesson for today and see God’s view of “The Good vs The Wicked.”
A Truly Blessed Person
A Truly Blessed Person
Their Character.
Their Character.
We notice right off the bat that the “truly blessed person” is described from a negative point of view.
In other words, what this truly blessed person really is not.
Psalm 1:1 (ESV)
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers
A person living a blessed life will not “walk in the counsel of the wicked.”
He isn’t going to live his life listening to the counsel of those that don’t have his best spiritual interests at heart but rather the counsel of God instead.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
A person living a blessed life will not “stand in the path of sinners.”
He isn’t going to “join” the foolish on their path of evil.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. 15 Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
A person living a blessed life will not “sit in the seat of the scoffers.
He isn’t to “hang out” with those that are always mocking and treating God, his creation, or anything else righteous with contempt.
4 I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. 5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
The Psalmist then describes the “truly blessed person” from a positive point of view.
What a blessed person really is instead of “is not.”
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
A really blessed person is one who will “delight in the law of the LORD.”
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. 48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.
A really blessed person is one who loves to “meditate on God’s word day and night.”
97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
And what does all this “living against sin” and “living for righteousness” get the child of God?
God clearly states…
Their Prosperity
Their Prosperity
The psalmist states in Psalm 1:3…
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
This isn’t saying that we will be always “healthy, wealthy, and earthly wise” but rather will always have enough to be content in this life.
This concept is found throughout the scriptures.
12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, 15 to declare that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
How can God know who to take care of?
Psalm 1:6 (ESV)
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous…
Summary
Summary
Because the righteous love God and his word their character will be that of the same.
And God knows those that truly love him and will bless them greatly not only with what they need physically to be content but what they need spiritually as well.
Now compare that person, this truly happy person, in this life to…
A Truly Desperate Person
A Truly Desperate Person
Nothing Like The Righteous.
Nothing Like The Righteous.
Unlike the righteous person that God blesses over and over the wicked are not so and are more like “chaff in the wind.”
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Now this isn’t to say it doesn’t appear from time to time that the wicked aren’t prospering or being blessed by God.
It most certainly does seem this way and has to God’s people throughout time.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.
15 And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’ ”
17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? 18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
However, though it looks like the wicked are blessed or happy in this life, the reality is they most certainly are not.
They don’t know the love of God in their lives.
They don’t know the comfort of having God by their side.
They don’t know true peace no matter what goes on around them because God is with them.
The wicked, in this life, are nothing like the righteous.
It’s not just this life where we find differences, we find it also with…
Their End.
Their End.
What the psalmist, and thus God, makes clear is that there is no scenario where the wicked actually prosper from a biblical perspective.
They have been judged and found wanting by God almighty!
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
Yes, they might have “material prosperity” but in the end they will perish from this world like everyone else.
13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
And when this end comes they will bow their knew and not be able to make a defense against their judgment because they have sown the seed of sin in their life and thus will reap the judgment it requests.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Summary
Summary
In this life and the next there is no story that could be told nor summary made that doesn’t clearly show that the life of the righteous is far more blessed than that of the wicked.
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Conclusion
Conclusion
One brother described the difference between the Good/Righteous and the Wicked/Unrighteous in this psalm as…
“The way of the righteous is know (blessed, providentially cared for) by the Lord. The way of the ungodly shall perish, like a trail leading into a swamp that eventually disappears.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.